Lisa met her goal of losing 100 pounds by her 40th birthday, but the struggle continues. Click through to read about losing the first 100 pounds or click on the links below to read about the new challenges.

Lisa met her goal of losing 100 pounds by her 40th birthday, but the struggle continues. Click through to read about losing the first 100 pounds or click on the links below to read about the new challenges.

I tried writing in this space about a month ago and got three paragraphs into it before I gave up. I just feel like I'm saying the same things over and over and not making any real changes that stick. But all I can do is try again and keep trying until I get out of this rut.

I've had a little quote running through my head this week: "when she was good, she was very, very good, and when she was bad, she was horrid."

(As an aside, I looked up the verse and learned that it was written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and actually reads "when she was good, she was very good indeed, and when she was bad, she was horrid," but the relevance remains.)

I feel like that's a pretty perfect representation of how I've been doing lately: when I'm focused and committed to my plan, I do really well and stay focused and committed. And when I slip just a little bit, I go off the deep end and can't get it back together until I "start over" on my weigh-in day.

It's incredibly frustrating with just a little relief found in the fact that at least I do start over each week.

I'm honestly not sure what the issue is. I know that I've always been somewhat of a perfectionist and that I deal with myself in very black-and-white terms - I'm either on my plan or off it and there doesn't seem to be a more relaxed version somewhere in the middle.

But if I'm going to be successful in making a lifestyle change and maintaining my weight loss, I'm going to have to learn how to embrace more moderate behavior.

When I set out to write this, my first thought was that I'd set out my goals for this week to make sure I get back "on plan." But now I'm realizing that being "on plan" is the easy part; what's hard is letting up a little without losing control.

So I'm going to try something a little different and set out some goals in moderation instead of perfection. This week I will:

1) Choose one night when I'll have one, and only one, alcoholic drink.It's actually easier for me to have no drinks than to have one, but the longer I forbid myself to drink, the more likely I'll drink too much when I do end up splurging and, even worse, snacking too much as a result. This will be an exercise in having a treat without it being a gateway to too much indulgence

2) I'll choose one day to eat what I want without tracking Weight Watchers Points.I've found that if I have a day where I eat more than I want or feel like I should, it's very difficult to get back on track because it feels like the week has been shot so there's no point. I think it's very rare, though, that a single day can actually really ruin my efforts for a whole week. So the challenge here will be to be okay with having a treat or two and then getting back to business the next day.

3) I will exercise five times, but two of those times can only be for 15 minutes and can't be at the gym.I usually go to the gym for an hour. And if I oversleep or I'm running late or have something else to do, I tend to skip it because if I can't go for an hour, it doesn't feel worth it. And as soon as I skip one day, it's easy to skip another day. And then suddenly I'm only going once a week and that's only because I've paid my trainer for a session. This week I'll try to remind myself that even 15 minutes of exercise is a great way to start the day and I don't have to feel like exercise always has to be a huge commitment.

I'll admit it: the all-or-nothing part of me is freaking out about setting out to be less than perfect - we'll see how it goes!

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